Yew billets
Posted: Thu May 22, 2014 5:21 pm
Just received my two yew billets today, they're 41"x2x2" and the growth rings are very fine and close, about 40 rings per inch! I've never used yew before so I did some reading and discovered that
A: you can violate growth rings on the bows back (sapwood) as long as the sapwood maintains an even thickness all over the violation shouldn't lead to a disaster
B: you can also strip the sapwood completely off and use only the heartwood.
Now this all heartwood bow would sugest that the sapwood may not be as tension rich as once thought and is not crucial to the bows survival. This brings me to my next thought...IF the sapwood is good in tension and I decide to leave some on the back of the bow and sinew ontop of it, wouldn't all this tension hardy material on the back mean that the belly would be under more strain as the bow could be drawn further forcing the belly to compress more? Or am I just over thinking things
A: you can violate growth rings on the bows back (sapwood) as long as the sapwood maintains an even thickness all over the violation shouldn't lead to a disaster
B: you can also strip the sapwood completely off and use only the heartwood.
Now this all heartwood bow would sugest that the sapwood may not be as tension rich as once thought and is not crucial to the bows survival. This brings me to my next thought...IF the sapwood is good in tension and I decide to leave some on the back of the bow and sinew ontop of it, wouldn't all this tension hardy material on the back mean that the belly would be under more strain as the bow could be drawn further forcing the belly to compress more? Or am I just over thinking things